Linkshell: Interaction Rules and Guidelines

(Last modified as of 7/9/2009)

Within Sfant Umbra it's easy to find plenty of oddball characters and interesting adventures. But when roleplaying with your fellow LS members we do have some guidelines to be followed:

OOC Chat

At times you may not feel the urge to roleplay, maybe you don't want to RP. That's totally fine! As with roleplay we are a casual LS too. OOC chat is welcomed but when a RP session is under way please keep the OOC chat within the shell to a minimum. If you need to speak to another in OOC take it to tells. In order to separate in character comments from out of character ones we ask all members use a form of tag system. This can be as simple as adding "OOC" before your sentence or using ( at the start and ) at the end. As long as people can tell it's an OOC comment it doesn't matter.

Abbreviations/Real Life

During the course of our lives, man has found it easier to respond with abbreviations. While this is fine for the average world, it's not so easy in roleplay. If you found something funny you wouldn't shout "LOL!" would you? If you had to take a wicked whizz you wouldn't tell your friend next to you "Yo, BRB!", right? Well the same applies here. When you roleplay please refrain from using abbreviations. Type your sentences out fully. At the same time, avoid from making comments or references to the outside world when RPing. If you're busy you can say "Excuse me, something requires my attention so I might not respond for awhile".

Language/Content

Being a mercenary group you certainly cannot expect it to be funtime at Barney's. Mercenaries are usually grown adults who don't hesitate to express themselves with profanities or sexual references. So the same applies here, swearing is okay IC and OOC provided it is kept at a minimum. That means we don't want to see you dropping the F Bomb every five seconds. Cussing at another member OOC will be frowned upon and is considered harassment. For swearing we prefer to maintain a R rating inside and outside of the shell. For sexual content it must be PG-13 within the shell. A character can throw around some sexually-related hints but anything that would be deemed inappropriate for public display must be taken to a private conversation.

Please note that Sfant Umbra and the Council cannot be held responsible for what actions take place between two characters in a closed environment. In instances like this we ask both parties remove their linkpearls as to avoid any embarrassing mistells to the LS chat.

Foreign Languages: OOC

While we welcome anyone from any nationality or country to join Sfant Umbra you must understand we are a linkshell situated in the USA. Therefore only English is allowed within LS chat. We ask all users refrain from using foreign languages within the LS for this reason. If you are found doing so you will be asked by a moderator to stop. Repeated offense may result in temporary suspension from pearl privileges.


Foreign Languages: IC

Within the world of Vana'diel each race has their own kind of dialect, an ancient language. To help users recognize when another character is using it we try to use special tags for these. As we grow and more dialect options are added these may change.

Elvaan ancient tongue = > text goes here <
Mithran tongue = >> text goes here <<

If someone uses the above tags in an RP setting then think before you reply, does your character know this language? Can they speak it? Mithran is fairly common but other races may be fairly rare. In order to coincide with Vana'dielian lore there may be times we will ask users speaking in excessive amounts of language other than Mithran to cut back a little. Elvaan, Galkan, Tarutaru, and Hume languages (Other than your standard Vana'dielian all characters naturally speak.) are considered ancient forms of dialect lost years ago which may be difficult for just about any character to suddenly get their hands on. Again as we grow this may be subject to change.

In-Game Events

A suggestion for events that may not fit in to the Vana'diel theme would be to find an alternate way of wording it. When someone asks how seasoned you are you might reply with "I am a Scholar of thirty-seven seasons" instead of saying you're a Lv37 Scholar. When you fall in battle you don't die but rather become incapacitated or faint. In sorts you are in a limbo between life and death. Returning to your Home Point would be like a means of your spirit using an emergency teleportation to your place of binding for a little bit of your strength and skills (EXP) for your current profession (Job).

HP and MP could be referred to as physical health and mental health. Skill-ups in magic or crafts would be becoming proficient with a certain spell or tradeskill. If going out to level you might refer to it as hunting or training. Farming could even be referred to as hunting for materials. Use your imagination and you'll find an infinite number of possibilities to explain the game mechanics in an RP form.

Quests

Playing FFXI you will discover that many quests and/or aevent will happen to your character as it seems that the world revolves around you. Unfortunately that is the same with each and every player. Since it's clearly impossible for every character to be there when a key character dies or turning point in an important story happens we ask members avoid roleplaying these occurrances. This also avoids the issue with spoilers. The point in time is that these events or instances have either yet to have happen if a character is to die, or have already happened. An easy way to incorporate a quest into your RP is to change elements of it. Change little pieces such as maybe you obtain a certain item or meet a different character than what really happens.

A simple thing saying is "When it doubt, leave it out". If you have questions, feel free to ask a recruiter or Council member about their view on it.

Time Flow

Vana'diel time greatly varies from our time. Days can pass in the matter of a few hours in Earth time. Unfortunately nobody can be sure precisely how it would equal out in the world of RP. As to avoid any unnesscessary frustrations it would be easier to base your greetings upon the current time of day within the game. You might greet an individual with "Good morning!" if it's morning in-game but night in your area of the world. Time within our linkshell is based on that it has been roughly 20-21 years since the end of the Crystal War Era. This may change as future expansions are added.